“It’s easy to have these ideas and try to push them forward, but when it comes time to actually write up the rules and think of all the situations and all the scenarios that could happen on the ice, making it clear enough so that we can give our on-ice officials the proper direction, there is a lot of work to do,” [former] Montreal GM Pierre Gauthier said. “It’s going to go forward as a recommendation, but there is some cleaning up as to how exactly it is going to work and what directives we’re going to give.” With hybrid icing, the linesman is required to make a judgment call at the faceoff dots in the offensive zone. If the forechecker is leading the race for the puck when he reaches the faceoff dots then play is allowed to continue. If the defenseman is leading the race for the puck — or if he is even with the forechecking forward at the faceoff dots — then the linesman is to blow his whistle to stop the play and immediately call icing.

As for testing hybrid icing, Kevin Allen of USA Today reported its implementation is contingent upon AHL Commissioner Dave Andrews and the AHL competition committee and board of governors.

That said, the American League has historically been cooperative in testing possible rules changes.